Bilora was a German manufacturer of low-end 127, 126, 35mm and 120 cameras. Some of their cameras had Bakelite bodies, such as the Bilora Boy, a 6x6 camera with an interesting design. However, most of their cameras were metal-bodied, such as this example of the Stahl-Box, a 1953 model with flash sync sockets at the top. The Stahl-Box cameras have a 6x9 cm neg for 8 exposures per roll of 120 film. The f/11 meniscus lens with about a 1/30 sec shutter + time exposue and fixed focus isn't anything special. The reflex viewfinders work, but are hard to see through in bright sunlight. While the cameras are low-end compared to most of the other German manufacturers, they are sturdily built with simple mechanisms, aimed for the snapshot market.
This camera came to me last year, and I finally got around to testing it out. What better film to try it with than an expired roll of Kodak Vericolor III!
I shot the roll on an outing back in August, and while not the most exciting subject matter, I feel the results are actually quite good for a box camera of this type.
There are an amazing number of 120 box cameras that are still available in decent working order. Most of them are not made by Kodak, but by Agfa, Ansco, and Bilora. Kodak made some 120 box cameras until 620 became the favored Kodak film for their line of medium format box cameras. A 6x9 negative is certainly capable of producing a decent-sized contact print, and back in the day, that's often how the drugstore-processed films were returned to the customer - as b&w contact prints. Today, of course, we can scan these and easily make prints of any size.
The following shots from the Stahl-Box were processed by The Darkroom Lab, and I am quite pleased with the results. Once again, Kodak's Vericolor III shows itself to be an extraordinary film.
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